Aircraft maintenance has evolved to include the monitoring and recording of aircraft-related data while an aircraft is in service. The aircraft data may be collected for individual parts or for entire systems, and is used for scheduling aircraft maintenance and providing insight into performance and troubleshooting (hence, prognostics). Often called “vehicle health management,” or the onboard maintenance system (OMS), the collection and recording of aircraft data is typically centrally managed by an onboard software program that compiles the data into parametric data reports. More than eight thousand different aircraft parameters may be monitored and recorded in response to a data collection request.
A prognostic data collection request typically includes a selection of which data parameters to collect, when to collect each of the data parameters, and how the data is presented in a report. A primary stakeholder, such as the airline or the aircraft original equipment manufacturer (OEM), generally submits a single prognostic data collection request used to configure an onboard management system to generate a single, large, prognostic data report.
Secondary stakeholders, such as suppliers of parts, vehicle fleet operators, military and research personnel, and the like, may also have an interest in aircraft-related prognostic data. If a secondary stakeholder is permitted to submit a data collection request a-priori, the primary stakeholder may aggregate the secondary data collection request with the primary data collection request, creating a larger, unpartitioned, data collection request. However, issues such as confidentiality or licensing restrictions may be exacerbated by the inability to partition the data collection requests and prevent additional stakeholders from participating in aircraft prognostic data collection.
Additionally, if an interested secondary stakeholder is able to obtain a copy of the single data report from the primary stakeholder, the stakeholder must sort through the data report to cull the information that is relevant to the stakeholder's interest. Not only do secondary stakeholders have to deal with culling through the large and complex data report as received from the airline, but they are unable to modify the order or sequence of data collection to obtain a prognostic data report that is tailored to their interest. Finally, a given stakeholder may want different reports depending upon whether the stakeholder has a defense, space, air transport, business, regional, or general aviation focus, creating a need for multivariant prognostic reports.
Consequently, a method or system capable of concurrently generating multiple, customized, instances of multivariant prognostic data reports in aircraft is desirable.